What Does Ephesians 6:1 Mean in the King James?
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word translated “obey” holds hearing inside it: the child’s response begins in listening, within the Lord.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now to the child-parent relationship, placing the child’s response to parents “in the Lord” and calling it right. Its word for obedience carries hearing within the response, so listening is part of what the verse names as right.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that obedience here is only outward compliance: the word keeps hearing within the response, and “in the Lord” places that response within a relationship.
THE ROOT
ὑπακούετε
hypakouete
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
To hear, listen, or give heed; the verb combines this with ὑπό (hypo), “under.”
English “obey” can sound like bare compliance, but the Greek word keeps hearing inside the action. The child’s response is framed as listening under the Lord, not as an empty outward motion.
ALSO GROWS
akouō: Hear, listen.
ἀκούω
This is the hearing verb at the heart of “obey,” making listening part of the word’s sense.
akoē: Hearing; a report or message heard.
ἀκοή
The same word family appears in Romans 10:17, where hearing is the way trust comes.
hypakoē: Obedience; attentive response.
ὑπακοή
This noun keeps the same link between hearing and response that the verse’s verb carries.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, hearing opens into a response that takes shape in life.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.THE THREAD
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.The word translated “hearing” is ἀκοή (akoē), from the same ἀκου- (akou-) family as “obey.” Ephesians holds hearing within a child’s response; Romans shows hearing as the way trust comes.
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